Research

@ Universität Bielefeld

Our mission statement

As a university internationally regarded for its top-level research and innovative teaching concepts, Bielefeld University makes a significant contribution to a progressive and participatory knowledge society. It is an attractive, family-friendly place to work and study and is characterized by an open communication culture, lived interdisciplinarity, diversity and freedom for personal development. more

In this strategic research area Bielefeld University has carved itself a prominent niche nationally and internationally with a focused profile at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology, and bioinformatics. Current research focuses range from nanolayers and single-molecule processes through to bacterial, plant, and animal cells, as well as populations of organisms and their behaviour and even cosmology and particle astrophysics. They are driven by interdisciplinary collaboration, in part located at the Centre for Biotechnology (CeBiTec) and the Bielefeld Institute of Nanoscience (BINAS). more

@ Universität Bielefeld

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Analysing African medicinal plants

The graduate school YaBiNaPA of Bielefeld University and the University Yaoundé I in Cameroon project is identifying and harnessing medical agents in African medicinal plants.

Close cooperation between researchers working in mathematics, theoretical physics, bioinformatics, and business administration and economics (especially the Institute of Mathematical Economics, IMW) has a long tradition in Bielefeld. This strategic research area has therefore produced a series of major collaborative projects such as the Collaborative Research Centre ‘Taming uncertainty and profiting from randomness and low regularity in analysis, stochastics and their applications’ and the International DFG Research Training Group ‘Searching for the regular in the irregular: Analysis of singular and random systems’ in cooperation with Seoul National University. Bielefeld University is proud to enjoy an excellent international reputation for its research in mathematics (3rd place according to DFG's Funding Atlas 2015, 2nd place in the Humboldt Ranking). more

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Making uncertainty calculable

Researchers, especially in the field of stochastic analysis, want to better understand, describe and use randomness. More than 100 mathematicians from all over the world talked about this at the International Conference on Stochastics and Its Applications (ICSAA) in Bielefeld, headed by Professor Dr Michael Röckner. more

The aim of this strategic research area is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that allow humans, animals and artificial systems to act autonomously in complex environments and to communicate with each other. The heart of this strategic research area is the Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) Cluster of Excellence. While the CITEC Cluster involves researchers from computer science, biology, psychology, sports science, and linguistics, the strategic research area reaches out beyond these disciplines to include health sciences, law, sociology, business administration and economics as well as philosophy with a focus on the impact of technical interactive intelligent systems on all relevant societal domains. more

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Unmasking Social Bots

How can technical systems be used to combat Social Bots? This is one of the questions being investigated in a research project headed by CITEC researcher Prof. Dr. Philipp Cimiano. more

The vision of a close interdisciplinary cooperation between social sciences and the humanities has a tradition at Bielefeld University that goes back to the generation of its founders. Their shared concern with theoretical and methodological questions has since brought the disciplines closer together. This focus of research illuminates complex processes of human and societal developments as well as social interaction and institutions from different disciplinary perspectives. more

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A poor deal for political education

German schools place markedly less emphasis on political education compared to history or geography in their curricula. This is confirmed in the ‘2018 political education ranking’ presented by sociologists Professor Dr Reinhold Hedtke and Mahir Gökbudak. more